1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an antenna of a mobile terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an internal antenna of a mobile terminal that can support a multi-band and a multi-function operation and that can secure various radiator mounting space.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile terminals require antennas for wirelessly transmitting and receiving various types of communication. Nowadays, due to aesthetic design reasons of and performance, an internal antenna is widely used rather than a removable or an extendible external antenna. Entire antennas including an internal antenna/removable antenna require a radiator for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal. A radiator is generally used for transmitting and receiving an electronic signal (e.g., wireless communication signal) and is a device that radiates the electronic signal to space.
Mobile terminal are widely used for multimedia data communications as well as a basic communication functions. Conventionally, because an audio dedicated communication antenna and a data communication antenna are shared, even if one antenna radiator is used, there was no significant problem, regarding, for example, interference. Further, when a user holds the mobile terminal, an externally mounted antenna radiator is typically not covered by a user hand holding the terminal, and thus the antenna radiation performance does not greatly deteriorate as in the case of certain mobile terminals with internal antennas.
In addition, as multimedia-related data communication increases, there is increasing difficultly to provide a multiple service with one audio dedicated communication antenna, and thus an exclusive antenna for data communication becomes necessary. Further, mobile terminals often use both a 3G communication and a 4G long term evolution (LTE) communication method, each of which has a separate antenna, and thus the number of internal antennas mounted in the mobile terminal increases. Accordingly, the antenna allocation space in the mobile terminal becomes relatively reduced because of the separate 3G and 4G LTE internal antennas. Thus, as there is already difficulty in securing space for mounting two or more internal antennas in limited space, to add additional separate internal antennas for multi-media related communications and audio communications for each of the different protocols is not possible, or comes at a tradeoff of a larger-size portable terminal or the elimination of some of the functional modules that consumers have come to expect in such mobile terminals.
In addition, due to the increase of the number of antennas, when the user holds the mobile terminal during a call or when transmitting or receiving data, an antenna radiator is largely covered by the user' hand. Thus, a radiation performance of the antennas in the mobile terminal is greatly deteriorated, as compared with transmissions in a conventional external antenna. However, because an internal structure of the mobile terminal is technically arranged in a small area, it is quite difficult to freely change or rearrange the internal structure in contemplation of a user's grip of the mobile terminal. Therefore, there is difficulty in embodying a structure with an antenna pattern arranged to avoid interference by a user's hand.